Kittansett Club's Jack O'Donnell wins MGA Junior Amateur

He won't turn 13 until September, but Jack O'Donnell has been playing like a seasoned veteran on the golf course this summer.

ED COLLINS

He won't turn 13 until September, but Jack O'Donnell has been playing like a seasoned veteran on the golf course this summer.

A member at the historic Kittansett Club in Marion, O'Donnell, who lives with his family in Cohasset, notched his second win of the season in dramatic fashion on Wednesday at the Massachusetts Golf Association Junior Amateur Championship.

Playing in the Boys Division from the forward tees at the par-72 Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord, O'Donnell made one of his dreams come true after draining a 50-foot birdie putt to win a sudden-death playoff and add to the title he brought home at the U.S. Challenge Cup Francis Ouimet Championship earlier this month at Stow Acres.

The winning putt came on the par-5, 502-yard first hole after O'Donnell reached the back of the green in three with a driver, a 3-wood and a pitching wedge that left him facing a tough downhill putt with a four-foot break to the right.

"I was just trying to lag it up there and leave myself a tap in for a par," said O'Donnell, who will be a seventh grader at BC High in the fall and aspires to make a long putt to win the Masters Tournament someday. "Halfway there, I thought it had a good chance and with about 15 feet to go, I knew it was going in. When the ball disappeared into the hole, it was a great feeling."

The shot won the match, but a par might have done the same thing because Willow Bend Country Club's David Rogers needed four shots to reach the green and was staring down a tricky downhill putt of his own for a par that he might have missed anyway.

After opening with his best score ever, a 2-under-par 70 that featured six of the seven birdies he made in the tournament, O'Donnell carded an 8-over 80 in the second round and ended up in a first-place tie with Rogers, who finished at 6-over 150 after putting together scores of 72 and 78.

The playoff came about after O'Donnell just missed an eight-foot putt for a par five at the 413-yard 18th hole that would have won the championship in regulation.

"I made a good putt. It just didn't go in," said O'Donnell, who started playing when he was 4 years old and has an early memory of going on a family vacation to Bermuda and spending hours at a driving range. "I hit three good shots on the playoff hole and putting is my strength, so I was confident I could two-putt for a par. I got lucky though, and the ball went in for a birdie."

O'Donnell's win featured another clutch putt on the par-3, 140-yard 17th hole, where he rolled in a 25-footer for a par after hitting his tee shot into a bunker and blasting out with a sand wedge.